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Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.
Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.
The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.
Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.
Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.
Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.
A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.
04.11.09:Did Ancient Comets give Earth its Seas?
Comets continue to be at the center of controversy concerning the early Earth and life. If you’ve been following our recent reports as of late, you know that opinions run the gamut, from ancient cometary impacts being relatively rare, to comets being crucial to life as we known it. Now, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark have scored one for the comet camp. Recent studies of ancient rocks in Greenland suggest that the primordial Earth may have undergone a massive cometary bombardment early in its history, about 3.85 billion years ago. Were talking waaaaay back in the Archean period, before life had even taken hold. The conclusion is based on our friendly elemental smoking gun, Iridium. Rare on Earth, what little iridium is found in the Earth’s crust is almost certainly of extraterrestrial origin. Asteroid impacts generally distribute about 18,000 parts per trillion, while comets, due to a higher impact velocity and icy rock composition, produce amounts much lower, about 130 parts per trillion. The team found a ratio of 150 ppt, strongly suggesting that comets were the primary constituents of the Late Heavy Bombardment. This is a tantalizing clue in two enduring mysteries concerning the early Earth; how did we our get our large oceans, and how did life start? Looking out into the solar system, we are the only planet with a large surface covering of liquid water. Could it have been deposited by comets? That’s a lot of dirty snowballs… there is some thought that life itself, or at least amino acids, known as the chemical building blocks of life, might have been deposited in the same fashion by a method known as panspermia. Not all scientists remain convinced, however, and for now, spinning cometary hypotheses remains a sure way to generate scientific controversy. Are we all “comet-stuff?”